The White Stripes, ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ (2005)

One of several videos Michel Gondry directed for the White Stripes (including “Fell in Love with a Girl,” which rendered the Whites as computerized Lego figures), “The Hardest Button to Button” deploys a live-action form of stop-motion animation to transform the band’s instruments into semiautonomous beings. Meg’s drum kit clones and reclones itself as it marches across the platform of a New York City subway station; Jack’s amp undergoes mitosis, and its replicants pile atop each other. (Also of note: Beck stops by.) The video’s lo-fi, labor-intensive craftsmanship  its raw, lovingly handmade quality  is both classic Gondry and classic White Stripes, underlining why director and band made such a good marriage.